For fun - what daft things have you done in the name of 'skincare'?

[Feedingthebirds1]

I'm assuming that for most women (and men) during the spotty, blackheady teenage years, washing your face with washing up liquid at least once was a rite of passage .

Did anyone else actually try bleaching the blackheads with Domestos? (). Or anything else that was really crazy?

(My mother could never tan. I'm the same. When she was younger her friend, who went mahogany in the sun, recommended Mum tried olive oil on her skin. Much blistering and burning ensued. Different times...)

I bleached my arm hair as a teenager with facial bleaching cream. Ended up with orangy arms. Not a good look!

Oh so many fuck ups before I really started being interested in skincare properly and not just reading Just 17 or Mizz.

Used a mask for black heads that warmed up and stung like fuck. Worked though.

Made pastes of crushed up aspirin for face masks. Gave me spots.

Used apricot scrubs on my face despite my dm saying it would give me spots and she couldn’t use it either. Gave me spots.

Used Clinique clarifying lotion 3. Gave me spots.

Toothpaste on spots. Didn’t work.

Bought into the oily skin can be dehydrated thing and used oil free moisturiser. Gave me spots.

Used eye cream, made me puffy so I stopped.

Used pre st tropez face tan. Looked like a frazzle.

Used peel off masks. Gave me spots.

Did 20 sunbed sessions on advice of beauty therapist because my skin had spots. Didn’t help and I hope to god I haven’t given myself skin cancer.

Tried decleor for spots. Didn’t work.

Refused Roaccutane at 30 despite really needing it. Took it at 41 instead.

Burned the area between my eyebrows using hair removing cream on my monobrow at 11.

Luckily I earned well, read Newby Hands in Harper’s & Queen, went to dermalogica salons & sorted myself out with sunblock at 22.

Put undiluted TCP on a small spot in between my eyes, ended up burning my skin with it and had blisters and bright red skin across a huge area. Didn't try that again!

I did the toothpaste on spots. Tried waxing my eyebrows with selloptape. Oddly enough it did nothing. I also tried putting lemon juice on my very dark brown hair and going out ion the sun to try and get bleached stripes. Again it did absolutely nothing except I smelt lemony.

Not skincare, but heated my eyelashes curlers with a hairdryer as advised in a magazine and burnt my eyelids so painfully.

Lemon juice on my hair and sit in the sun for a couple of hours hoping for the summer highlight look.

Remember when Mizz and Just 17 told us to steam our faces over a sink full of hot water, with a towel over our heads, to ‘clean out the pores’? Madness.

I used to do lemon juice in my hair.

Sunbathe lots in nice weather with no spf to help spots. It worked but I got badly burnt on one side of my face on holiday in Greece when I was 14.

I used to do anything to try and get rid of spots. I once sprayed a load of antiseptic savlon spray all over my face before bed, woke up in the night as my skin was burning. The skin blistered horribly and I was covered in sudocrem for a good while after!

I used to do lemon juice too. I'm sure that was in teenage magazines!

Oh I also used to use a spot cream which had benzoyl peroxide in, it used to bleach all of my pillowcases! That's pretty daft really!

I remember once thinking putting a load of blusher on (like a clown basically) would be a good way to disguise spots.

Most of my daft skincare has been in the name of getting rid of or disguising spots!

@Iamthewombat

Remember when Mizz and Just 17 told us to steam our faces over a sink full of hot water, with a towel over our heads, to ‘clean out the pores’? Madness.

There's a better one than that. Another one (think it was Woman or Woman's Own) told you to steam your face AFTER putting on your makeup, to make it 'glowy and dewy'.

Thinking back I waged war on my teenage blackheads more than once. My first attempt, before I reached for the Domestos, was to prick each and every blackhead with a pin. I'm sure at the time there was a logic to it, but these days it escapes me. What I do remember is having to think very fast when my parents asked me why my nose and chin were covered in red dots.

And then, a couple of times I think, pinching a bit of Dad's Swarfega and sneaking it upstairs to wash my face with.

You'd think by now my face would be so sensitive it would object to water, but actually it's turned out as rhino hide. I wonder if in all the assaults and insults I put it through it decided it had better go into survival mode???

I think teen girls need saving from themselves.

Oh god, I did terrible things!
Lemon juice on my dark brunette hair. Also actual domestos bleach in the hope of going lighter.
Sunbeds in my early 20's. I deeply regret this at 50 - had 3 painful punch biopsies in my face checking for melanoma.
Home made rose water made with crushed petals!
Rubbed orange and lemon peel on my face to exfoliate it (apparently.)
Home made face masks using oats and berries!
Shaved my emerging facial hair. Omg I wish I'd waxed or plucked!
Used the most horrendous biscuity smelling, streaky bright orange fake tan.

Oh, the oat face masks. Another tip from bloody Mizz!

Honey face masks. Gave me spots.

Once bought some actual sandpaper from Wickes and used it to exfoliate my body. You're not going to believe this but it was really painful.

All the other usual weird stuff: sleeping with coconut oil on my face, toothpaste on spots, using toners so astringent that they made my eyes water...

Boots used to sell sanding mitts to remove hair on your legs. I used one and broke the skin & it didn’t remove the hairs either.

I remember those mits!

I used a metal grater to remove hard skin, broke the skin and had a sore on my foot for a week.

Cucumber on my eyes. Vinegar rinse in my hair. Mashed banana face mask. Also steamed face with hot water and a towel..actually didn't know that had been debunked 😂

Ooh I remember doing vinegar hair rinses too with cold water! I suddenly had a flashback to the mid 80's and shampooing with Linco Beer shampoo, which smelled really nice!
What a fun thread!

Shaved my eyebrow with a razor to get rid of stray hairs - had half an eyebrow (aged 10 I think!)

Put sunglasses on and laid under my wall lamp (like a desk lamp screwed to the wall) thinking I would get a tan... absolute lunatic

Didn’t those hair removal mitts (silkymitts?) smell like you had burned matches, after you had scoured the hair off your legs? Can’t decide whether that was a false memory.

Re the PP who removed blackheads with a pin: I seem to recall that in the 80s The Body Shop sold a thin metal device with a small ring on the end for removing blackheads, was it an attempt to replicate that?

Re the PP who removed blackheads with a pin: I seem to recall that in the 80s The Body Shop sold a thin metal device with a small ring on the end for removing blackheads, was it an attempt to replicate that?

Nothing so sensible!! This was actually sticking a pin in them. I think (but don't quote me) that I thought if there was a hole there the gunk would come out. It didn't, the hole just bled. ( - again)

One of my friends (friend 1) at school though used to use the end of a hairgrip to achieve the same thing as the Body Shop gadget. On her own blackheads and anyone else's who'd let her near them. I remember friend 2 having a huge blackhead in her ear, and friend 1 could hardly contain herself. Shame we were in double chemistry at the time!!

St Ives apricot facial scrub. I can’t believe they still sell it

I didn't dilute dettol. I put it on the cotton pad and wiped it all over my face like toner. That STUNG. I ran a sink of cold water and had to keep dunking my face, holding it in for as long as possible.

I used a foot grater, not even a pumice 🙈 on ingrown hairs on my legs. That fucking hurt.